59: Tower Intruders

Seija pushed Firewall's detection radius to its maximum limit, more than enough to cover the entire castle town's circumference. It was a mountainous area, with steep drops, cliffs and canyons surrounding the castle on all sides. It begged the question as to how these invaders even managed to get up to the town in the first place, but she supposed it was just video game nonsense.

Interestingly, about a hundred meters past the outer wall of the town, the grey code of the jagged land abruptly ended at a sudden wall of black. There were more mountains and structures in the distance according to her real vision, but they appeared hazy, and she got an instinctive impression that she could walk towards one for years and never get anywhere closer to reaching it. In other words: They were fake.

'That black code must be the edge of the Dungeon. Nothing past there is real.' Seija concluded.

Scanning around the area she found roughly a hundred more of those red-armored invaders spread throughout the entire town, some marching towards the Castle Tower, but most just milling about, patrolling small side streets or just standing guard randomly around more of those little golden loot spots. Like the enemies below her feet on the lower floors of the Tower, they didn't seem to move or act like real people. Just a bunch of NPCs waiting for a 'Player' to enter their targeting range.

Continuing her scan she looked towards what she believed may be the moat that the scenario had described to them. It was kind of hard to tell. When you live on top of a mountain range, pretty much every steep decline could technically be classified as a moat. But when she focussed on it with Firewall's sight, she knew it was the real deal. There was a small wooden doorway built into the side of a low stone path along the wall of the moat, glowing with an orange code that she hadn't seen anywhere else in the Dungeon.

Firewall's sight revealed its true nature.

[Boss Room]

[The final room of a Dungeon containing a powerful foe. Defeating this enemy reveals the Dungeon's exit and provides a grand reward to the victorious party.]

'There's our exit... Huh, interesting. The scenario only stated that we needed to reach the secret exit near the moat... It didn't say anything about fighting a boss.'

With her destination set, she assigned Firewall the job of marking every enemy, every piece of loot, and the entrance to the Boss Room, to make sure they would stay in her sight even when she deactivated his vision for herself.

The code around her receded and she turned back to her team. 

"I've found the exit. There are about one hundred and thirty enemies within the town walls, ten of which are spread out through the tower below us. Our exit, the hidden doorway near the moat, is roughly three hundred meters away towards the south west. There's a lot of walls and buildings between us and our destination, which I think benefits us if we choose to go for stealth. Any thoughts?" She asked the group.

"You figured all of that out just from a bit of sensing?" Ichiro blurted out, seemingly in disbelief.

Killua shrugged and maintained his relaxed posture. "Not that strange. There were Nen users in my old world who could sense everything for hundreds of meters with their En. My grandpa was one of them. I'm guessing you're using something similar, Seija?"

She nodded.

Killua clapped his hands. "Great! So we've got our target, and a rough enemy count. Now, I couldn't help but notice in the first message from Mimi to you other Reincarnators, which Yosuke relayed to me on my way here, but I believe there was some loot implied to exist in this Dungeon? You wouldn't happen to have spotted where said loot might be, would you?" He spoke with a sly, mischievous grin.

Without revealing her ability to see every single piece of loot in the Dungeon, Seija described the groups of enemies lying in wait at various locations, as well as implying that this was a common design methodology for video games back on Earth. Killua's grin grew when she finished her explanation.

"Got it, so those groups are probably guarding the loot then! Now that we've got all of that out of the way, let's get down to business. I think..." He pointed his thumb at the balcony railing behind him, the opposite side from where they'd been shot at, "We should jump right off the side there."

Ichiro immediately shook his head.

"No way, man. I know you're a crazy strong Nen user, but I don't think the rest of us can survive a fall like that."

"Aren't you a shinobi?" Killua asked with a raised eyebrow, "You guys can literally walk on vertical surfaces. What's the problem?"

Ichiro grimaced and scratched the back of his head. "Well... I'm not that far into my training yet. I'm good at Taijutsu and I've got my Devil Fruit for everything else soooooo... Yeah I just haven't spent much time on chakra control, ok?"

The sound of a gloved palm slapping against a ceramic mask sounded out.

*sigh* "Ichiro... Chakra control is the single most important ability for a shinobi to hone. It affects literally everything. The ability to walk on walls and water is the most obvious, but when I say everything, I truly do mean everything. It affects your physical strength and durability, your chakra regeneration speed, your reaction times, the rate at which you can learn and master new Jutsu, your healing speed... Need I go on?" Seija jabbed a finger into Ichiro's chest with every point she listed.

"Ow ow ow, alright! I get it! I'll work on it when I return to Konoha... Jeez..."

"Now, with all that said..." Seija turned to Killua, "I actually agree with Ichiro. Not for the same reason, mind you, but simply because going down through the Tower itself may be more beneficial to us than simply skipping the entire way down."

"Yeah? Why's that?"

"Because there are a handful of enemies inside the tower who seem to be guarding loot-"

"Change of plans! We're going down the inside of the Tower instead!"

Seija chuckled to herself. 'That was easy. Now, let's see what this loot is like. Maybe it'll be worth keeping instead of destroying for Experience. Doubt it.'

She'd tried to identify the loot at a distance with Firewall's new capabilities, but it just showed up as a [Loot Drop] with no specification as to what the loot in question actually was. The description stated that the reward would be randomly generated once someone picks it up, so she couldn't just System Break all of the loot within a hundred meters for the free Experience. Thus, the best way would be to lead the party to as many Loot Drops as she reasonably could while staying on track to reach the Boss Room. 

As much as she would like to gather every single Item in the Dungeon, their group was still kind of limited by a few different deadlines between the various Reincarnators needing to return to their home territories within the day so as not to look suspicious, as well as Kyusuke who would come looking for Seija if she was gone for a few too many hours.

So until she could verify the value of the loot, she would lead the group in the general direction of the exit without turning around to grab all the Items in the other direction.

With their plan set, the group got into formation with Seija at the front as the guide, Ichiro and Mimi behind her, with Mimi directly behind for her protection, and Ichiro slightly off to the side. Killua followed up behind the group, watching their backs.

The room on the top floor of the Castle Tower was fairly barren save for two features. There was what appeared to be a storeroom off to one side which was covered in unidentifiable trash. Nothing in there actually qualified as loot, so it seemed to just be set-dressing to make the building look a little more realistic. It did have an open window though, which would perhaps offer another escape route should they need it.

In the central room of the top floor there was a sizable religious shrine, in front of which sat the first piece of the Dungeon's loot. As they neared it, the shining golden light became visible to everyone in the party.

'So they're supposed to be invisible until you approach them? Thank you, Firewall...' Seija mused.

With no other threats on the top floor, Killua split off from the formation to snatch up the glowing object. The mote of light held in his grasp flashed for a moment before the light turned solid and glittered away into thin air. Left in his hand was the true Item.

[Consumable Item: Common Healing Potion]

Killua clicked his tongue and held it out to the rest of the group.

"Can anyone tell me what this thing is? Is it good?"

The rest of the group blinked in surprise.

'Oh right, Killua's just a summon. He has no System to Identify or Appraise it for him.'

Mimi meekly raised her hand before either Seija or Ichiro could answer.

"It's a Common Healing Potion. It can heal minor wounds like cuts and scrapes. It can't heal broken bones, and if there is debris or dirt in the wound, it has to be cleaned out first or the Potion would heal around the debris, possibly causing infection in the wound... So um, it's not a very good Item..." She explained.

"Aw, damn it... Anyone else want it?" Killua completely gave up on the prize.

Seija kind of wanted it for Firewall to destroy, but recalled him telling her that her System would need more powerful targets in order to gain experience now. She remembered Mishima's paper storm that he tossed out to block her destruction attempts, and that she did not receive any Experience for those Common-rarity sheets of paper.

So this Potion was probably too weak to provide her with anything. It was decided in the end that Mimi should be the one to carry it, at least until they found something better. She was the one in the most danger of being injured, after all, and she also had an Inventory that she could keep it in, which none of the others had.

Seija was a little surprised to hear that Ichiro didn't have an Inventory, since most generic Goldfingers like his own could apparently have them.

"My System is still Level 1." Was his answer.

'Ah, that explains that then. Mimi's Merchant System is all about transporting goods around, so of course she'd get an Inventory earlier than every other kind of System.' Seija guessed.

Checking over the final room on the floor, the last room was almost entirely empty save for the tatami mats on the floor, the art and decor lining the edges of the room, and a pair of sheathed katanas sat atop a pedestal.

Killua once again took the initiative in examining the weapons with sparkling eyes, but Seija noticed that these weren't actually real Items. They were made from the same grey code as the building around them.

He drew one of the blades from its sheath and checked the edge with his thumb, but scowled and tossed it aside when he was done with it, as if it had personally offended him.

"They're nice looking, but completely blunt. Guess they're either for decoration or training... Either way, they're worthless to us."

With that the top floor was explored. Only thing to do now was to look for the stairs down...

- - -

There were no stairs. 

"Seriously, who the heck builds a castle like this?!" Ichiro shouted over the wind as the group walked along the slanted rooftop of the next floor. The only way forward had actually been the window in the storeroom. Fortunately, they were on a side of the building without any gunners visible on the ground, so at least they could walk safely without having to deal with incoming bullets.

"Didn't we already agree that it was video game designers? Also get ready, I can see a window coming up on the next floor down." Seija called back. 

Up ahead the roof was turning a corner in front of them, revealing another open window that they could jump down into. Seija checked the positions of the enemies inside. The structure of the room appeared to be a single large central room - much like the top floor - with a few additional rooms surrounding it. Two of the enemies were patrolling the central room, while two more were standing in different rooms off to the side. The room that the window led to was empty of any danger.

"Ichiro and Mimi, come here. Don't make any noise once you're through, just in case." Seija commanded. Crossing her fingers, she summoned a pair of shadow clones which unceremoniously hauled Mimi and Ichiro over their shoulders before either of them could voice a protest, before leaping down to the open window. Once through, the clones dropped the pair on the ground and stood guard in case an enemy heard them. None did.

But, as Killua and Seija prepared to make the jump themselves, something twigged Seija's detection high above them. She held up a hand to stop Killua from jumping and turned to face the thing she had detected behind them, high in the air.

In the sky above them, a large kite shook in the air, and in front of it, flying - or rather, falling - towards them at rapid speed was a small figure holding a hook-shaped blade. As it shot closer, she wondered if this foe was attempting a sneak attack. If so, it was a pretty terrible one on account of the noise it made as it approached.

"WOOOOOOOOOOOOO-"

*Slam*

She smashed her fist right into its long-nosed mask the second it got into range.

"Blegh-" It wheezed as its body dropped limply onto the roof. 

"Huh. Weird little guy. Did he drop any loot?" Killua asked as Seija picked the dead enemy up by the scruff of its ragged, feather-covered clothes to examine it.

[Nightjar Ninja]

[A crooked shinobi dressed like a mythical tengu from Japanese legend, and a defender of the Castle Tower. They attack by swooping down from their kites and smashing into their targets to stun them. Once the foe is stunned, the Nightjar Ninja cuts them apart with their sickle-like blades.]

[This particular Ninja has been corrupted by the red eyes of Doujun, causing him to lose sight of the distinction between friend and foe.]

'Pretty shit excuse for a ninja. Who the hell screams out loud during a sneak attack?'

"No, he didn't drop anythin- hold that thought." Seija cut herself off as she reached into her equipment pouch and pulled out her wallet, of all things. It had suddenly felt a little heavier than before, and when she opened it, she found a handful of 10-Ryo coins had materialised inside.

"Scratch that, it seems he dropped some money. These coins weren't here before." She held out the coins for Killua to see.

He grinned in response. "Sweet! That's like... one, two... four packs of chocolate balls right there! Do you mind?" He asked rhetorically as he was already reaching for the money. Seija had no real use for what was effectively just a few dollars worth of coin, so she handed it over. If Killua wanted to spend it on snacks, then that's what it'd be used for.

Seija's detection pinged a second time, this time from inside the room where her shadow clones had taken Mimi and Ichiro. She turned in time to see the red glow of two enemies inside fade away. More Ryo manifested inside her wallet.

"Killua, I think this guy's shout alerted some guards inside. Come on."

They followed the shadow clones' path through the open window and came into a tiny side-room connected directly to the main chamber. 'Ah, no wonder these enemies were alerted, then. This room has no door. I thought it might have just been slid into the wall, but no, this little room is completely exposed to an enemy's sightlines.'

Her shadow clones were stood over the bodies of two more shinobi, although these two looked to be far more prepared for the role than the Nightjar Ninja up above. They wore much more official-looking shinobi attire, accompanied by a purple and black striped travelling cape draped over their shoulders, their left side in particular .

'Fancy.'

[Interior Ministry Agent]

[Professional shinobi of the Interior Ministry. Skilled and stealthy combatants specialising in the use of kicks and swordplay. All Interior Ministry Agents who fail to master the Vilehand technique will lose the functionality of their left arms which become shriveled and useless as a result. Successful Vilehands are distinguished by the hoods they wear, which all other Agents lack.]

[This particular Agent is not a Vilehand.]

"These guys weren't too dangerous." One of Seija's shadow clones explained in a low whisper, not wanting to alert the other two enemies still left on this level of the Tower, "They were fairly quick on their feet for a person with no chakra and their strikes had a surprising amount of weight behind them, but their lack of a left arm made them easy to disable. If they had a second arm, they'd be a lot more dangerous."

"Alright." Seija answered just as quietly, "Killua, assassination is your specialty, right? The other two shinobi on this floor are over there, and there. You want to deal with them?" She pointed to two of the other rooms surrounding the main chamber.

"No problem."

He immediately hopped up into the rafters above the room and soon vanished from all of her senses besides her System sight. She watched his mass of blue code quickly traverse the rooms, pouncing on one of the red signatures which immediately turned grey. Seconds later, the other one was dead too, and the floor was clear.

With the danger clear, Killua returned to the group and they set about exploring and looting. They immediately tried to take the weapons from the dead shinobi, as their swords looked to be of good quality, but the weapons simply vanished into thin air once sepparated from the bodies. It seemed like taking weapons that weren't from Loot Drops was not allowed.

One of the two Agents killed by Killua had dropped a piece of loot along with the coins that were the standard for enemy drops. It looked like a pouch of strange orange powder.

[Consumable Item: Dousing Powder]

[A powdered medicine that cures burns and provides a moderate boost to fire resistance for several minutes.]

Seija read the description to Killua this time.

"It's medicine. Cures burns and makes you more resistant to them for a bit. I'd say it's better than the Healing Potion from before, but more limited in scope."

Killua seemed satisfied with the explanation, but was somewhat unhappy that it was yet another recovery item. It - like the Potion - was given to Mimi just in case she needed it.

The rest of the rooms were mostly empty, but the presence of more of those blunt katanas suggested that it may have once been a dojo for the swordsmen of the Castle Tower. More items dotted this dojo space than the singular one upstairs.

It was mostly just more of those Common-rarity Potions, which Mimi was happy to add to her Inventory. Apparently it had limited space for different Items, but the same item could be stacked in a single space without limit, so Mimi didn't mind the sudden influx of medical supplies.

There was a single Item on this floor however that didn't match with the healing supplies. A small pouch filled with a silvery metal.

[Adamantite Scrap]

[A rare and valuable crafting material. This metal is of similar weight yet more durable than any kind of mundane steel, however its scarcity makes it more commonly used to craft small, delicate mechanisms than weapons or armor. It is sometimes used to create a fairly strong alloy with steel, although this reduces the effectiveness of the metal when compared to pure adamantite.]

[This pouch contains roughly 200 grams of adamantite.]

"A crafting material this time. It's a strong metal that is generally better than steel, but it's very rare so nobody bothers to use it for weapons or armor on its own." Seija explained. 

Killua immediately wanted to keep it and sell it to some blacksmith later, but Mimi pointed out that he may struggle to convince the smith of the metal's value.

"...Since it doesn't exist in the real world, they won't have ever seen it before, and thus might not agree to buy it from you unless you have an excessive amount for them to experiment with to prove its value. Two hundred grams is simply not enough for that. You'd be better off waiting for the Reincarnated Union to get their own in-house blacksmith who can work on it for free, or giving it to the Akatsuki who could make use of it in the same way. For now, I'll keep it in my Inventory, and if we find any more, then we can split some off for you." 

He grumbled a bit, but ultimately acquiesced and handed the precious metal over.

"Jeez, when'd you become such a vicious businesswoman? You were a stuttering mess most of the time earlier." Ichiro pointed out, causing Mimi to puff out her chest proudly.

"Are you kidding? My business studies were the one thing that my parents in my old life thought mattered for my future. They put me through years of grueling coursework, part time jobs in the family company, and near-constant study. I'll be damned if I don't get at least some use out of all that nonsense I had to put up with for so long!" She said, indignantly.

With the loot arrangements sorted, they looked to the open hole in the center of the main chamber. It'd be a long drop down, but it looked like they could skip most of the tower's floors and reach the bottom immediately in this way. Seija's System sight noticed that the other rooms leading down were almost entirely empty. Like the hole was the expected way to get down and the rest of the Tower served little purpose.

Ichiro looked concerned about the distance, but Seija's shadow clone picked him up again. He sighed and accepted the indignity as Seija and her shadow clones carried the group down to the ground level.